Ethanol injection therapy for a bronchogenic cyst ; a case report

A 27-year-old woman was admitted with dyspnea. Chest CT showed a large mediastinal tumor compressing the trachea. Chest MRI showed multiple lobules of the tumor. We diagnosed this tumor as a bronchogenic cyst. From a cosmetic point of view we could not choose posterolateral thoracotomy. Thoracoscopic surgery was impossible because of the tumor size and occupation. So we devised the ethanol injection therapy. Under a collar incision, we inserted a bronchofiberscope into the cyst from its upper part. At the same time, under guidance of transesophageal endoscopic ultrasonography, we certified immanent walls in the cyst and destroyed them by TBLB forceps to make a single lumen cyst. And we injected pure ethanol into it. Postoperatively the cyst became very small.